The Shameless Fakery of Trump’s Retreat on Family Separations

Most weeks,New York Magazine writer-at-large Frank Rich speaks with contributor Alex Carp about the biggest stories in politics and culture. Today, Trump’s retreat on family separations, Michael Bloomberg’s $80 million gift to Democrats, and the emerging schisms at Fox.

After repeatedly saying that he could not single-handedly end family separation at the border, Donald Trump has signed an executive order that ends the practice, replacing it with indefinite detainment of parents and children together. Is this the first major retreat of his presidency?It is a major retreat, but only a rhetorical retreat. When talking heads on CNN and MSNBC say Trump has caved, they have irrefutable evidence to back it up: a kaleidoscope of video clips of him and his White House cohort claiming that “only Congress” could end this humanitarian horror show when in truth it could have been ended by a presidential phone call. Indeed, even the executive order Trump signed, with its Freudian misspelling of the word “seperation” in its title, wasn’t needed. It was a prop intended to wipe the images of caged children from the screen. And a favorite Trump prop: He loves few things more than displaying his signature, whether on executive orders or pardons, to try to spin the illusion that he is governing. Not to mention the added bonus that the big signature distracts the audience from the small fingers he uses to wield the pen.

But back in the real world, this crisis is far from resolved. Only the same idiots who bought Trump’s post-summit tweet that there’s “no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea” would think so. Some 2,300 children remain separated from their parents with no clear prospects for reunification. There will be legal and bureaucratic chaos, accompanied by further human suffering, as ill-equipped government agencies now move to incarcerate families intact under the still-standing Trump–Jeff Sessions–Stephen Miller “zero-tolerance” policy. Already today the Trump administration has been forced to temporarily suspend migrant family prosecutions because of the case overload. Next up: There will be bloody new battles in the civil war among Republicans in Congress as they once again try and fail to find an overall “fix” for American immigration policy with the Election Day countdown clock ticking. It can never be forgotten that Trump is no outlier in his own party: While roughly two-thirds of Americans oppose his Draconian immigration measures, nearly 60 per cent of Republicans approve of them and expect their representatives in the Capitol to obey their Dear Leader.

Another small but useful side effect of this crisis has been to expose just how deeply the psychosis of compulsive lying has spread through the administration’s ranks. The Homeland Security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen destroyed her reputation this week as her mentor John Kelly had before her with her ludicrous purported ignorance of both the origins of the separation policy and its horrendous human fallout on the border. As Aaron Blake of the Washington Post pointed out, Nielsen was already a serial liar, having previously publicly claimed that she didn’t know Norway was a white-majority country when Trump said he preferred Norwegian immigrants to those from “shithole countries” and having testified before Congress she was unaware of the American intelligence finding that Russia had tried to boost Trump in the 2016 election.

Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg has committed $80 million to help Democrats take control of the House in November. How does his money change the midterm forecast?Bloomberg’s commitment is significant not because it changes any midterm election forecast; after all, his spending to further the cause of gun control has had limited effects. But it is a strong and highly welcome departure from the feckless evenhandedness with which too many centrist politicians and centrist and conservative pundits have on one hand deplored Trump and on the other stopped short of calling for voters to cast ballots for Democrats as the most practical way of derailing him. (A classic example of this cowardly disingenuousness, as always, comes from Mitt Romney, who recently revealed that he chose to write in Ann Romney for president in 2016.)

Yes, the Democrats often leave much to be desired, but we are in a crisis that threatens our country. Moderate Republican politicians and opinion columnists who talk about rebuilding the GOP with John Kasich or whoever’s left once Trump is gone are not just daydreaming but sidestepping any concrete action to deal with the present-day threat to America posed by a lunatic in the White House. While Washington is burning, and threatening to take the world with it, they would rather preen and advertise their own evenhanded civic virtuousness. Bloomberg has now decidedly left that fatuous club, and so has Steve Schmidt, the longtime GOP campaign operative who this week took the step of announcing his support for a Democratic electoral wave on the grounds that the Democratic Party is “the only party left in America that stands for what is right and decent and remains fidelitous to our Republic, objective truth, the rule of law and our Allies.” You can’t argue with that, even if some Democrats and Democratic policies, often with good reason, drive you berserk.

The Times has pointed out that to some extent this protest becomes moot once either of Fox’s two corporate suitors, Disney and Comcast, wins the bidding war to buy most of the Murdochs’ entertainment assets. But even after that sale, Murdoch will likely retain not just Fox News but the Fox broadcast network, which will likely continue to broadcast Family Guy among other shows run by liberals like MacFarlane. (Modern Family is aired on ABC.) If Trump is still president by the time that sale is final — possibly a good year away — this just might get bloody.

Facebook remains very concerned about false information circulating on the platform

Facebook says it will continue to host a video of Nancy Pelosi that has been edited to give the impression that the Democratic House Speaker is drunk or unwell, in the latest incident highlighting its struggle to deal with disinformation.

The viral clip shows Pelosi – who has publicly angered Donald Trump in recent days – speaking at an event, but it has been slowed down to give the impression she is slurring her words.

Trump v Pelosi: how a ‘stable genius’ president met his match Read more

… Despite the apparently malicious intent of the video’s creator, Facebook has said it will only downgrade its visibility in users’ newsfeeds and attach a link to a third-party fact checking site pointing out that the clip is misleading. As a result, although it is less likely to be seen by accident, the doctored video will continue to rack up views.

Dating as far back as the Pentagon Papers case and beyond, journalists have been receiving and reporting on information that the government deemed classified. Wrongdoing and abuse of power were exposed. With the new indictment of Julian Assange, the government is advancing a legal argument that places such important work in jeopardy and undermines the very purpose of the First Amendment. The administration has gone from denigrating journalists as “enemies of the people” to now criminalizing common practices in journalism that have long served the public interest. Meantime, government officials continue to engage in a decades-long practice of overclassifying information, often for reasons that have nothing to do with national security and a lot to do with shielding themselves from the constitutionally protected scrutiny of the press.

Rep. Chip Roy became the man who delayed $19.1 billion in disaster aid to communities throughout the country on Friday.

House leaders had planned to pass a multibillion-dollar disaster assistance measure by unanimous consent, but the Texas Republican objected on the floor.

Roy took issue with passing the measure without a roll call vote. He also complained that the legislation lacks offsets to prevent it from driving up the deficit and that congressional leaders left off billions of dollars in emergency funding President Donald Trump seeks for handling the inflow of immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Nadler reassures people that he’s ok after appearing to pass out at event

House Judiciary Chairman Nadler: “Appreciate everyone’s concern. Was very warm in the room this morning, was obviously dehydrated and felt a bit ill. Glad to receive fluids and am feeling much better. Thank you for your thoughts.”

Sen. Menendez says the Trump admin has “formally informed Congress that it is invoking an obscure provision of the Arms Export Control Act to eliminate the statutorily-required Congressional review of the sales of precision-guided munitions to Saudi Arabia, the UAE and others.”

Scary moment at this press conference now, @RepJerryNadler appears to be dehydrated, perhaps low sugar as the conference was underway. They are clearing the room so he can get medical assistance. He’s conscious, drinking water and has just been fed an orange

Conflicting so obviously with Roe V. Wade, the law is likely to be blocked

Planned Parenthood and the Alabama Women’s Center on Friday filed suit against the state of Alabama to block the most restrictive abortion law in the nation.

The near-total ban, signed by Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey on May 15, would criminalize abortion in almost all circumstances — including cases of rape and incest — and punish doctors with up to 99 years in prison. Without any challenges, the law was set to go into effect in as soon as six months.

The lawsuit, filed in United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, sets off a chain of events that both sides say is likely to lead to a years-long court battle. State lawmakers have said they passed the law specifically to bring the case in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, which they see as having the most antiabortion bench in decades. The bill was designed to challenge the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision by arguing that a fetus is a person and is therefore due full rights.

That provision said patients cannot be turned away because they are transgender, nor can they be denied coverage if they need a service that’s related to their transgender status.

The announcement follows a series of moves that bolster efforts by religious conservatives to narrowly define gender and gender protections. Earlier this month, the administration finalized rules making it easier for health workers and institutions to deny treatment to people if it would violate their religious or moral beliefs.

Prominent publishers are very worried about the Julian Assange espionage case

NYT’s Dean Baquet: “Obtaining & publishing information that the government would prefer to keep secret is vital to journalism & democracy. The new indictment is a deeply troubling step toward giving the government greater control over what Americans are allowed to know.”

Hannity has an hour-long prime time show, no editorial supervision, and the ear of the president. What could go wrong?

… Hannity, who consistently dominates the ratings across all cable news outlets, brazenly ignores … [Fox’s news standards]. And news-side employees who spoke to The Daily Beast believe it’s because no one at the network is willing to control the ratings-leading host.

A blaring example of that is Hannity’s treatment of claims from guests whose dubious “reporting” would never pass muster on Fox’s hard news shows. The most commonly cited example of this is Trump-boosting Fox News contributor Sara Carter, whose news credibility is so questionable that, as Mediaite reported in March, Fox News executives allegedly told Hannity to stop calling her an “investigative reporter” on his show.

“Fox News executives have asked Hannity to stop using this title on the grounds that Carter’s reporting is not vetted, and passes none of the network’s editorial guidelines,” the media news site reported. And even without any such dictate, Hannity’s hyping of “reporters” who don’t meet Fox’s news standards would be considered troublesome at any mainstream outlet.

Nevertheless, Hannity has persisted.

In fact, according to a review of Fox News transcripts, he has only gotten more defiant since he was reportedly scolded by executives. This year, Hannity has referred to Carter as an “investigative reporter” at least 18 times, two-thirds of which came after he was told to stop. In several of those instances, Hannity even slapped a network-wide stamp of approval on Carter, calling her a “Fox News investigative reporter.”

Mueller has told House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler that he is willing to make a public opening statement, but leave his testimony behind closed doors, Nadler said on “The Rachel Maddow Show” Thursday night.

Nadler, D-N.Y., has made repeated efforts for Mueller to speak in front of Congress. If Mueller did proceed with private testimony on his report, the public would get a transcript, Nadler said.

“We think it’s important for the American people to hear from him and to hear his answers to questions about the report,” Nadler said.

“He envisions himself correctly as a man of great rectitude and apolitical and he doesn’t want to participate in anything that he might regard as a political spectacle,” Nadler said about Mueller not wanting to testify in public. But he added, “I’m speculating really.”